Ben Kingsley Wants to ‘Do More Comedy’ After Working on ‘The Boxtrolls’

“The Boxtrolls,” the latest stop motion film from Laika, which created “Paranorman” and “Coraline,” seems sweet as can be. While there weren’t many guttural cheers at the Comic-Con presentation Saturday, there were a lot of sighs and “oohs” from the audience as footage was shown from the film that opens Sept. 26 via Focus Features.

Hall H was on a high from the big beasts and superheroes from the previous panels, Warner Bros. and Legendary/Universal, but the studio still charmed the crowd. Elle Fanning and Ben Kingsley star in the toon is based on Alan Snow’s novel “Here Be Monsters!”

Directors Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable spoke about the nearly decade-long journey they embarked upon to create this film, including building every single part of every single prop. They also talked about its difficulty.

“It’s the worst way to make a movie, it makes no sense, there’s no reason why we should do this,” said producer Travis Knight. He proceeded to talk about the artistic nature of the film and the fact that stop motion captures something that no other medium can.

He also spoke about shooting the film natively in 3D, meaning using special cameras and equipment, and in effect altering the film into 2D for those theaters not equipped with the technology.

Fanning, whose elder sister Dakota voiced the character of Coraline, noted that voicing Winnie was great, but that she was really blown away by being in the same film as Kingsley.

He noted that he did his voice recordings lying down in order for his character’s voice to come from the stomach. He also noted that it’s been a while since he’s done comedy onscreen, instead playing his more comedic roles onstage.